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Fascism
Fascism as an ideology is tremedously difficult to define. However, two things are clear: facism sees the ultimate authority over all areas of human life as invested in the hands of an all-pervading state, and sees itself as a religio-social revolution against all extant political ideologies conducted by the morally-ambiguous creative wielders of this authority in order to more fully invest this organizing power in the hands of the state. It developed in the inter-war period in the form of elite-led but populist "armed party" politics opposing socialism and liberalism and promising radical politics to rescue their various nation from decadence after the fall of the traditional states and their empires in WWI, becoming an unstable revolutionary, trans-class form of anti-liberal, and ultimately an anti-conservative nationalism with a complex range of theoretical and cultural influences upon which it was built. It sought a political aesthetic that used romantic symbolism, mass mobilisation, a positive view of violence, promotion of masculinity and youth and charismatic leadership, and generally sought nationalist authoritarian goals for the creation of a regulated economic structure to transform social relations within a modern, self-determined culture. The Political Theory of Fascism "A nation, as expressed in the State, is a living, ethical entity only in so far as it is progressive. Inactivity is death. Therefore the State is not only Authority which governs and confers legal form and spiritual value on individual wills, but it is also Power which makes its will felt and respected beyond its own frontiers, thus affording practical proof of the universal character of the decisions necessary to ensure its development. This implies organization and expansion, potential if not actual. Thus the State equates itself to the will of man, whose development cannot he checked by obstacles and which, by achieving self-expression, demonstrates its infinity." - Benito Mussolini, The Doctrine of Fascism (1932) Fascist thought sees the rights of the state as composing the real essence of the individual, and as such it is against classical liberalism and socialism where they argue for individual rights or priviledges, but also against conservative values and traditional religion whenever they obtrude upon the right of the fascist's intelligensia to define the essence of the individual's constituting the state. In Fascism, the state's powers over individuals are concieved of as necessarily stretching to infinity in theory, and as close as possible in practice. "Anti-individualistic, the Fascist conception of life stresses the importance of the State and accepts the individual only in so far as his interests coincide with those of the State, which stands for the conscience and the universal, will of man as a historic entity. It is opposed to classical liberalism which arose as a reaction to absolutism and exhausted its historical function when the State became the expression of the conscience and will of the people. Liberalism denied the State in the name of the individual; Fascism reasserts The rights of the State as expressing the real essence of the individual. And if liberty is to he the attribute of living men and not of abstract dummies invented by individualistic liberalism, then Fascism stands for liberty, and for the only liberty worth having, the liberty of the State and of the individual within the State (13). The Fascist conception of the State is all embracing; outside of it no human or spiritual values can exist, much less have value. Thus understood, Fascism, is totalitarian, and the Fascist State - a synthesis and a unit inclusive of all values - interprets, develops, and potentates the whole life of a people." Furthermore, the Fascist state sees itself (and its authority figures themselves) as the vanguard of all culture, a force imposing its sense of spirituality upon the world and acting as the ultimate sum of all the achievements, realized and potential, of mankind. It understands itself as the organically necessary by-product of life in a world which is in constant flux, preserving what is valuable from the old way of viewing the world and delimiting the path its component individuals may take in their lives to ensure its value to the future of the society under their watch. "The Fascist State , as a higher and more powerful expression of personality, is a force, but a spiritual one. It sums up all the manifestations of the moral and intellectual life of man. Its functions cannot therefore be limited to those of enforcing order and keeping the peace, as the liberal doctrine had it. It is no mere mechanical device for defining the sphere within which the individual may duly exercise his supposed rights. The Fascist State is an inwardly accepted standard and rule of conduct, a discipline of the whole person; it permeates the will no less than the intellect. It stands for a principle which becomes the central motive of man as a member of civilized society, sinking deep down into his personality; it dwells in the heart of the man of action and of the thinker, of the artist and of the man of science: soul of the soul." - Benito Mussolini, The Doctrine of Fascism (1932) Fascism derogates the Marxist idea of class warfare, and hence is not particularly interested in securing the interests of the working class. However, Fascism recognizes the needs which give rise to socialism and trade unions, but sees them instead as but one effect of the modern delimitation of the total power of the state necessary for the greatest amount of human perfection. Instead of cracking down on unions outright, as conservative governments are apt to do, Fascist governments seek to integrate them within the total corporate system centralized by the unlimited rights of the state. "No individuals or groups (political parties, cultural associations, economic unions, social classes) outside the State . Fascism is therefore opposed to Socialism to which unity within the State (which amalgamates classes into a single economic and ethical reality) is unknown, and which sees in history nothing but the class struggle. Fascism is likewise opposed to trade unionism as a class weapon. But when brought within the orbit of the State, Fascism recognizes the real needs which gave rise to socialism and trade unionism, giving them due weight in the guild or corporative system in which divergent interests are coordinated and harmonized in the unity of the State." - Benito Mussolini, The Doctrine of Fascism (1932) Fascism portrays the ideal state as a monolithic entity conducted by a few people (or even one person) from the top down, dictating to the world as an ultimately irrational mob that what it does is in their best interests and seeking in that way to ultimately gain the uttermost support of the masses, not so much in their votes as in their very consciences and wills. This is to be unbounded in terms of geography or even race (at least in Mussolini's original version), but ultimately defines itself in terms of one people historically perpetuating themselves unified by a single idea with an unbounded will to live and seek power over the rest of the world. "Fascism is therefore opposed to that form of democracy which equates a nation to the majority, lowering it to the level of the largest number; but it is the purest form of democracy if the nation be considered as it should be from the point of view of quality rather than quantity, as an idea, the mightiest because the most ethical, the most coherent, the truest, expressing itself in a people as the conscience and will of the few, if not, indeed, of one, and ending to express itself in the conscience and the will of the mass, of the whole group ethnically molded by natural and historical conditions into a nation, advancing, as one conscience and one will, along the self same line of development and spiritual formation . Not a race, nor a geographically defined region, but a people, historically perpetuating itself; a multitude unified by an idea and imbued with the will to live, the will to power, self-consciousness, personality." - Benito Mussolini, The Doctrine of Fascism (1932) Trivia *Unlike conservatism, fascism specifically presents itself as a modern ideology that is willing to break free from moral and political constraints of traditional society. The conservative authoritarian right is distinguished from fascism in that such conservatives utilized traditional religion as the basis for their views while fascists focused based their views on more complex issues such as vitalism, non-rationalism, or secular neo-idealism.(However, they had little qualms in co-opting traditional religion to sway the less modernized of their potential constituents after cynically redefining them to fit with the general conception provide by the above issues.) *Fascists accuse liberalism as being the cause of de-spiritualization of human beings and transforming them into materialistic beings in which the highest ideal is moneymaking. In particular, fascism opposes liberalism for its materialism, rationalism, individualism, and utilitarianism. Fascists believe that the liberal emphasis on individual freedom produces national divisiveness.Fascists and Nazis, however, support a type of hierarchical individualism in the form of Social Darwinism, as they believe it promotes "superior individuals" and weeds out "the weak".However, one issue where fascism is in accord with classical liberalism is in its support of private property rights and the existence of a market economy. *Fascism opposes communism's intention for international class revolution, and attacks communism for supporting "decadent" values, including internationalism, egalitarianism, and materialism, and fascists have commonly campaigned with anti-communist agendas.Fascism and communism, however, have common positions in their opposition to liberalism, individualism, and parliamentarism. Fascists and communists also agree on the need for violent revolution to forge a new era, and while fascism was opposed to Bolshevism, both Bolshevism and fascism promoted the single-party state and the use of political party militias.